The effect of minority threat on risk management and the “new disciplinology” in schools

Abstract

BackgroundDiscipline in U.S. public schools has been mirroring patterns observed in the U.S. criminal justice system. Educational and criminal justice institutions have not only become increasingly punitive and exclusionary despite decreasing rates of misbehavior and crime, but have also produced dramatic racial and ethnic disparities in who is punished relative to representations in the larger national population. Rocque and Snelling argue that these phenomena are the product of a general desire for risk management. PurposeI argue that much of the punitiveness observed concurrently in educational and criminal justice institutions is actually the result of minority threat and its influence on perceptions of risk that may accompany minority composition of schools and communities. ResultsEvaluation of research on racial threat and the “new disciplinology” makes it seem likely that racial composition is increasing policy makers' and administrators' desire for risk management as an institutional goal, which subsequently cultivates support for the punitive punishment that disproportionately targets minorities. ConclusionsPunitive educational and criminal justice policies should be revised to diminish the likelihood that they will be implemented in a discriminatory manner. Further, restorative practices in both settings have promising outcomes not just for racial and ethnic minorities, but for communities as a whole.